Chapter 4
Prev Chapter PART FOUR In a sector on the opposite end of the secluded military complex, two men had become locked in a less-than-heated argument. One had jet-black hair and was applying a wrench to a detached mechanical arm approximately twice his size, the other wore a red jacket and sat examining hundreds of lines of code across a dozen monitors set up before him. Both were smudged with the oil and grease of their surroundings. They worked in the eastern corner of the Transport Bay, a huge garage lined with hundreds of vehicles – airships, hovercrafts, silver tanks equipped with death rays - all reaching years beyond the cutting edge in their complexity. “Oh, come on, one hundred,” the wrench-wielder exclaimed, “you can’t tell me this shit with the government isn’t bothering you at all. Don’t you feel at all like you’re becoming a tool of the system? Like the Man is personally signing our paychecks?” “First of all, my name isn’t one hundred, Syd,” 100 replied, turning away from the monitors. “We’re engineers, not Stormtroopers, so you don’t have to keep using my ID number. Second of all, why do you always have to start up the ethics debate around lunch time?” “Maybe the hunger just gets my juices flowing up here, eh?” Syd replied, gesturing to his head with the wrench. “Or something. But yeah, you told me about that stuff, the Animadversionite, that you helped the big cheese pick up in Tuzosia. That’s some hardcore Indiana Jones shit right there. What if our faces ended up getting melted off? Figuratively, of course.” “That only happened in one Indiana Jones movie, so it’s a moot point,” 100 fired back. “Anyways, the morality of our employer isn’t really relevant to me, so long as they keep supplying us wunderkinds with the resources we need to build our toys.” “Toys?” Syd echoed incredulously. “You think building weapons and equipment for a power-hungry and no doubt maniacal government is the same as playing with toys?” The other engineer gestured wordlessly to a futuristic midnight blue convertible, parked before a tall open gateway and gleaming in the sunlight. Syd raised his eyebrows. “Good point, man,” he admitted as he closed the hatch of the robot arm he had been tinkering with. “Tell you what, lunch is on me.” With that the colleagues departed from the garage, now discussing what sort of meal Syd would be paying for. Before they got far, a series of noises from back in the garage stopped them in their tracks: a familiar grinding *whir-ir-ah-ee*, followed by a blaring mechanical voice. “AUTO-TRANSFORMER MODEL ECHO LIMA ZERO AWAITING INSTRUCTION SET,” it boomed. “SUSPENDING IN RESET MODE…” The engineers rushed back, finding a towering, midnight blue robot standing in the spot where the convertible had been moments ago. Crouched and panting at its feet was Guenhwyvar, doubtlessly thanking some higher power for having managed to escape the compressing interior of the car as it shrank and contorted into the innards of another machine entirely. “That woman tried to hotwire the Transformer,” 100 whispered. “She damn near succeeded, too. Who the hell is she?” Syd’s grip tightened around his wrench. “I don’t care, bro,” he growled, “all I know is that she fucked with my car. This bitch is going down!” Holding his tool-turned-weapon aloft, Syd charged towards the mysterious woman with a yell. “Wait, Syd! She could be –“ 100 began, but he was too late. In a heartbeat, Guenhwyvar had pulled a gun from beneath her lab coat. There was a flash of yellow and a whistling noise. Syd fell on his back with a bullet lodged in his chest. The assassin hesitated as 100 rushed to his friend’s side… was it really worth wasting ammunition on another mechanic just to cover her tracks at this point? She had just set off a giant robot and killed a man in an open area… if the base had any security to speak of, they’d know where to find her now anyways. No, it was best to simply leave the scene as swiftly as possible. She reached beneath her disguise again to exchange her pistol for a grappling gun, then fired it into the hatch of one of the smaller airships. This had been her original exit strategy anyways, and she had spent much of the past month researching and committing to memory the closely-guarded secrets of how to hijack and pilot these crafts. She thought stealing a car might be a little more low-key, but it hardly mattered… all she needed to do was land an airship in a public area by the time her pursuers caught up to her, and they’d be too busy with the cover-up to notice as she slipped once more into the midst of the unwashed masses. The assassin climbed through the hatch and closed it behind her. A few seconds later the airship burst out into the open, just as security personnel begun to flood into the Transport Bay, firing their sidearms wildly at the ship’s thick armor. All the while, 100 had been dragging his fallen comrade towards their workstation, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. Syd was propped against the enormous robot arm he had been working on as 100 retrieved a strange metal framework, roughly the size and shape of a human head and connected to numerous wires, from deep within a drawer “Can you still hear me, Syd?” 100 said darkly as he attached several wires to his supercomputer. “Your wound… they won’t be able to help you in the infirmary. It’s fatal. You only have one chance to… to survive.” He cleared his throat, trying hard not to think of the ramifications of what he was preparing to do… but the pair had discussed the possibility of this situation arising before, and he knew that Syd would understand what he meant. “Are you willing to take that chance, Syd?” The dying engineer weakly murmured something vaguely affirmative and allowed 100 to fasten the device to his head, wincing as metal prongs dug into the back of his neck. “See you later, buddy,” 100 whispered. He flipped a switch, the contraption shone with a bright light, and Syd’s mind was blank. --- Guenhwyvar allowed herself to grin in triumph. The distance between her airship and the aircrafts flying doggedly in her wake only seemed to be increasing… apparently there were even fewer pilots with the skill and know-how to pilot the airships than she had suspected. She was home free. The assassin retrieved the chunk of Animadversionite from beneath her now unbuttoned labcoat, admiring the glowing crystal in one of her still-gloved hands as she absent-mindedly steered the ship with the other. “Mission accomplished,” she cackled softly to herself. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” called a voice idly from behind her, causing Guenhwyvar to experience what was probably not very different from a heart attack. She wheeled around to face a bizarre green-haired man, dressed in blue martial arts garb, a red mask and scarf obscuring his face and neck. He was leaned against the hatch, a katana resting in a sheath worn at his side, and he appeared to be playing with a portable video game system. “What… how… who the hell are you?” the assassin shrieked, switching the ship to auto-pilot with a quick motion. “How could you have possibly stowed away on the ship? Even I didn’t know which one I was going to escape in…!” “Yeah, see, there’s this thing we masters of stealth have about revealing our methods,” the green-haired stranger responded dully, his eyes still downcast. “By which I mean we don’t do it. You should know, I watched your little adventure in there and you’re pretty good at avoiding being seen.” He paused as a triumphant jingle arose from the game he was playing. “Cool, I just beat the Elite Four. Again.” Guenhwyvar’s free hand twitched, and she suddenly felt very aware of the weight of the gun in her belt. “You’re correct, of course,” she hissed. “Secrets are important in our trade. Perhaps you could at least tell me why it is that you’re standing in my stolen vehicle wearing a ninja costume?” He closed the game system, squeezing it snugly into his sheath beside his obvious ill-fitted sword, and for the first time faced the assassin with a bright, knowing stare. “Well, in part I’m here to thank you!” he jubilantly reported. “Yeah, my own team had been working out a plan to pilfer that little green rock for quite some time – we weren’t going to leave as much to chance as you did, actually – and here you’ve delivered the stuff to us early!” Guen whipped out her gun, her eyes still trained on the wisecracking ninja. “If you think you’re going to steal my quarry without a fight, then you’re sadly mistaken,” she coolly whispered. “Oh, Guenhwyvar of the WPN Spy Network,” he laughed, rolling his eyes at her attempt to startle him, “we already have!” Though she was sure he was either bluffing or speaking metaphorically, something made her glance at the chunk of Animadversionite in her other hand… which had magically transformed into a wad of coal. Shocked, she dropped it and turned back towards the ninja, who was now joined by another. This one was taller, a woman with icy blue hair in a black version of the same uniform as the first. Two blades were sheathed behind her back, and the Animadversionite rested in her palm. “You… you die now!” the enraged assassin screamed, but before she could pull a trigger, her gun was knocked to the floor, a tiny blade in the shape of the letter Z lodged in its barrel. The green-haired ninja smirked as he lowered his arm, still outstretched from throwing the shuriken. “Temper temper, Guenie-pie,” he said, “don’t you think you’ve made enough dumb moves for one day?” Guenhwyvar wrung her hands, frantically searching her mind for a way to salvage her situation. “Okay… l-listen, whoever you are, you’re never going to find a better ransom for the substance than what my organization is willing to…” she began, but her voice faltered under the fierce gaze of the mysterious duo. “I’m quite sure we wouldn’t be interested in any offer you’re able to make,” the female ninja began. She dropped the Animadversionite suddenly to the floor of the Airship and unsheathed one of her swords. “No, unlike those allied with your den of murderers and thieves, we fight and steal not for your worldly profit… but for great justice!” Guenhwyvar leaped from her seat, but she was too late, as the blue-haired warrior plunged her katana deep into the crystal. At once sphere of white energy pulsed through the sword and into the crystal, which violently fractured and then dissolved into flames of many colors in a brilliant display. The assassin fell to her knees, pounding the ground and allowing her long hair to droop over her face. The female ninja raised and sheathed her sword. “Your masters will ask you who has robbed them of their prize,” she announced. “You will tell them. You will tell them that you were confronted by Rei, warrior of the Ursine Spirit and keeper of the lost Kocak Order.” “Ooh, and also Zack, warrior of the Feline Spirit and trusty sidekick of Rei, whose sword is always… hey!” the green-haired ninja began before getting double eye-poked by Rei, who followed up by pulling his mask up over his eyes. “What I do, what I do?” he cried, struggling to pull his mask back down. “Shaddup, you knucklehead,” Rei barked, before turning back to Guen and continuing her monologue. “Anyways, yes, we are the Kocak Order, and we shall stop at nothing to defeat all men foolish enough to disturb the evil powers buried deep within the crust of this world. We will not rest for a moment until the Animadversionite is sealed once more beneath anonymous sands and forgotten. You will tell your masters this.” A single, furious eye could be seen behind the assassin’s fallen hair. “The prize was shot from my hands as I fled and destroyed,” she spat. “I will tell my superiors only this.” Rei’s eyes narrowed. “Then you afford us the element of surprise,” she replied. The blue-haired ninja proceeded to hurl a tiny sphere towards her feet, and in a burst of blue smoke she had vanished. A few moments later Zack finished pulling his mask down, noticed his partner had fled, and did the same. Guenhwyvar was alone in the hull of a silent ship once more. After glancing around and outside the airship to make sure they had really vanished, she resumed her position at the wheel with a sigh. At least the Americans no longer had the weapon… and her organization still knew of where they could mine for more. As for evil powers, they were more or less the norm in her line of work… why should the forces of evil be of any concern to her? --- Sand poured deep into the dark abyss as the ground beneath it split in twain. The sundry meek creatures of the Tuzosian wastes fled for their lives in the wake of the great yawing fissure. Was it an earthquake… or something more? Mighty claws scraped across the walls of this newly-formed escarpment as a grotesque beast scaled his way towards the world above. His skin was red and his body was massive, but misshapen and ill-proportioned. Two black horns jutted out from his skull, two vestigial leathern wings from his back. The imp wore obsidian armor decorated with the bleached skulls of defeated foes and held a mighty hellspear between his fangs. He was also wore a decidedly dorky pair of spectacles upon his face, though to what end the demon did this is strictly occult. Another monster, his skull ablaze and his body fitted with glowing orange metal, floated beside the imp, floating effortlessly from the pit below. “At last, the deadly power has been permitted to escape,” he cackled. “After centuries of waiting, the damned have been given lease to destroy the seals which bind us behind the gateway once more. Let the wealth and power of the world belong to the old god of hatred once again! Let the earth be stained red with the blood of the living! Let our kind run rampant forevermore!” “Lo’al fahagatse,” the imp gurgled in reply. Next Chapter